This Is What A BJP Leader Is Doing To Turn A Madhya Pradesh Town Completely Vegetarian

Inspired by Yogi Adityanath.

It seems a BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh got really inspired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Days after the Uttar Pradesh government cracked down on meat shops, leading to a shut down of a large number of slaughter houses-- a BJP leader wants to turn a town in Madhya Pradesh completely vegetarian.

Akhilesh Khandelwal, the Hoshangabad municipal chairman, wants a ban on meat in the city, reportsTimes Of India. Hoshangabad is a small city in Madhya Pradesh, about 70km from Bhopal.

The BJP leader has shot to fame in January after he announced a reward for anyone slapping filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

"I appreciate what the UP CM did. Meat should be banned in MP, at least in cities like Hoshangabad, which are located along the banks of Narmada," the BJP leader told ToI.

On Sunday, Khandelwal posed a question on his Facebook wall. "Kya Hoshangabad main mans, mutton or machli ka vikray pratibandhit hona chaheye (Should the sale of meat, mutton and fish be banned in Hoshangabad)," he asked. He is now going to wait for a week to see the reaction of people on his Facebook post.

Over the last couple of weeks, it has been reported, that officials have shut down all legal and illegal buffalo slaughterhouses, and some legal goat abattoirs too, in Uttar Pradesh.

On Sunday, filmmaker Salil Shanker, who has been a vegetarian all his life invited guests and watched them relish meat dishes. While Shanker didn't taste any of the dishes, this was an event organised to "Protest Against the Meat Ban by RSS by Eating Meat".

"I urge everyone to join and stand up against this hooliganism by just attending or having the meat of your choice because we live in a free country and people can eat/pray/wear anything they wish to," he wrote on Facebook before the event.

Meanwhile, after the crackdown in Uttar Pradesh, last week, the Jharkhand government issued an order for closure of all illegal slaughterhouses in the state within 72 hours. Last week, the Gujarat State Assembly on Friday amended its Cow Protection Law introducing a life term for those slaughtering the animal. In Maharashtra, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad activists have also been asking for an increase in the punishment for cow slaughter to life term, replicating Gujarat.